Abstract
Chemo- and radio-therapeutic regimens frequently kill cancer cells by inducing apoptosis, a cell-death subroutine that involves the activation of a particular class of proteases called caspases. In a recent issue of Nature Medicine, Huang et al. (2011) show that caspase activation in dying tumor cells causes the release of soluble lipid messengers, notably prostaglandin E2, that stimulate tumor cell proliferation. In this short review, we will discuss the clinical and therapeutic implications of these findings.
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Abbreviations
- iPLA2:
-
cytosolic Ca2+-independent phospholipase A2
- PGE2:
-
prostaglandin E2
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Acknowledgements
The authors are supported by the Ligue contre le Cancer (équipe labellisée, AXA Chair for Longevity Research, Cancéropôle Ile-de-France, Institut National du Cancer (INCa), Fondation Bettencourt-Schueller, Fondation de France, Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale, Association Laurette Fugain, Cent pour Sang la Vie, Agence National de la Recherche, FRM and the European Commission (Apo-Sys, ArtForce, ChemoRes. Death-Train) and the LabEx Immuno-Oncology.
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Galluzzi, L., Kepp, O. & Kroemer, G. Caspase-3 and prostaglandins signal for tumor regrowth in cancer therapy. Oncogene 31, 2805–2808 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2011.459
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2011.459
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